The present embodiments relate to elasticity imaging with ultrasound using acoustic radiation force (ARF). Ultrasound elasticity imaging includes different imaging techniques that characterize the elastic properties of tissue, such as acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) imaging or shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI). These techniques characterize structure and/or pathology.
In ultrasound elasticity imaging techniques, a force is applied to tissue, and the resulting tissue displacement is measured in order to determine mechanical properties of the tissue. The induced displacements are typically small, on the order of 10 μm for ARFI. When estimating the displacement within the tissue, one major source of noise is the underlying speckle of the ultrasound signals used to estimate the motion. This noise may have a disproportionate effect in estimating given the small amount of displacement.